To further advance skills development in South Africa, a new Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed by CHIETA, the chemical industries SETA, and INSETA (Insurance Sector Education & Training Authority) yesterday.

CHIETA is continuing to push boundaries through its ever-increasing number of agreements with organisations that share CHIETA’s passion for skills development, and consequently to job creation.

Yershen Pillay, CEO of CHIETA, says this comprehensive MOU will make a difference to the respective SETAs’ sectors, as well as to the wider economic upliftment in South Africa. “Collaborations, if implemented with careful consideration of each party’s mandate, are a valued means to increase our combined impact on skills development, which is key to the growth of our national economy, and important for upliftment within communities that need it. We are extremely hopeful of significant success from the shared projects and programmes that our two SETAs are embarking on.”

Gugu Mkhize, CEO of INSETA, says, “This three-year partnership is a key in strengthening the fortitude of both organisation as we tackle the triple challenge of unemployment, inequality and poverty through skills development.  Through this partnership, we have committed to support national priorities and align the skills demand to the supply in our respective sectors. We’ve identified research and innovation as one of the key levers for planning for the skills demands. I have no doubt that this partnership will enrich our sectors and make a meaningful impact in the post-school ecosystem.”

Pillay adds, “We have already identified various ways that our two SETAs can complement each other in the performance of our functions as outlined in our MOU. Our joint primary purpose is to cooperate and collaborate on strategic projects, career guidance, and research, and to share resources with each other.”

To kickstart the process, CHIETA and INSETA will work together to identify priority areas of research, which include research that will support CHIETA in line with INSETA’s Sector Skills Plan priorities.

Pillay believes that maximising usage of shared resources and interventions will contribute significantly to skills development in the country. “The foundation of this MOU is strong because our SETAs have a shared vision and a common goal to work together to impact an improvement in the economy and a decrease in our unemployment rate.”

Overall, the MOU stipulates that the SETAs will partner on strategic projects that are aligned to both organisational mandates, and will contribute to:

• Economic empowerment
• Youth employability
• Food security
• Entrepreneurship
• Business support
• Digitisation and Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR)

The MOU started at the signing by both SETAs, and will remain in place for three years, until 31 March 2025.